Author Comments

Reviews

Rated 3.5 / 5 stars2013-08-14 06:58:56

... Meh. I really don't see anything sen about it, really... I mean, Illusion, he made a good point about the whole philosophy of the thing, but... Y'know, I suppose it was zen, in it's way... But it really just seemed like a basic, classic breakout game with soft colours and very nice words. I changed my rating by increments of .5 twice during the writing of this review. Not bad. Not much else, either, but not bad.

Rated 3 / 5 stars2013-04-02 23:14:40

It's interesting that some of the complaints have been a lack of powerups or special blocks. In my limited understanding of Zen philosophy, those things would seem to counter to the idea of a Zen game, which should inherently be simple and elegant in its form. I do agree that the high, sharp beeps are very jarring, and don't contribute to the overall Zen theme. Perhaps a chime, a low gong, or the sound of water dripping into a pool...
But if you really want to go Zen, then the objective would not be victory, or the accumulation of points. The objective would be the path itself, the discovery that comes from the journey. Are we the paddle, or are we the ball, or are we perhaps the bricks themselves? Could we in fact be all of them and none of them?
Okay, enough waxing philosophical on my part. Overall it's a very nice idea, and a good start for something that could be interesting if you find a unique direction to take it in.

Rated 3.5 / 5 stars2013-03-25 07:53:41

My main gripe was that when I'm playing I can't see my cursor so I eventually moved outside of the play box and, of course, the paddle then stopped moving. It would be cool if you could add something that allowed you to gain a life back at certain scores (like 10k or something) so that if that happens at least you know there's a chance of clearing the level before you run out.

I really got the relaxing "Zen" feel from this game, the sounds didn't bother me at all, although perhaps a more soothing sound would have been better and I felt the lack of music and powerups helped cement the relaxing theme rather than detract from my enjoyment of the game :) I totally agree that some patterns would be nice, just hurling balls at a wall is only entertaining for a short period.

Rated 2 / 5 stars2013-03-25 03:09:55

Rated 1 / 5 stars2013-03-25 02:30:51

The sound effects gave me a headache as soon as I started playing, they're too high pitched. Aside from that, with out power-ups the game gets very boring very quickly, and doesn't compare to other versions of this game. In the future, consider adding the power-ups and medals/achievements for reaching certain scores, playing for a certain amount of time, etc.